Agricultural Revolution
PAVING THE WAY FOR THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION!
Agricultural Revolution
 Took place in England from about
1600-1800
 Increased productivity of food
 Allowed the Industrial Revolution
to happen
 Started with the Enclosure
Movement
Enclosure Movement
 Farms in England during the Middle Ages had been
mostly communal, or shared.
 People shared the land and let their animals graze in
common pastures.
 By the 1700s, rich landlords began buying up and
fencing in the land, forcing poor farmers to give up
their farms.
 Those poor farmers moved to cities and began working
in the newly built factories.
Crop-Rotation
 In the Middle Ages, farmers used
three-field crop rotation.
 A farmer’s field was split in three.
 Two were planted with two
different grains, while the third was
left empty (fallow) so it could
regain its nutrients.
Three-Field Crop Rotation
BARLEY
WHEAT
FALLOW
WHEAT
FALLOW
BARLEY
Year One
FALLOW
Year Three
Year Two
BARLEY
WHEAT
Four-Field Crop Rotation
 In the 1600s, farmers in
Flanders (modern day
Belgium) discovered that
planting clover in the fallow
field made it even more
fertile. Then clover the could
be used to feed animals.
 In 1730, a British aristocrat
named Charles Townshend
brought the idea to England
and introduced turnips to the
rotation as well.
 He was known as “Turnip”
Townshend after that.
Four-Field Crop Rotation
wheat
clover
turnips
wheat
barley
clover
barley
Year Two
clover
turnips barley
clover
turnips
wheat
barley
Year Three
Year One
wheat
turnips
Year Four
New Inventions
 Meanwhile, new devices
were being invented to
make farming easier and
more productive.
 These included:
 The
seed drill (1701)
 The iron plow (1730)
 The threshing
machine (1786)
New Crops
 Corn and potatoes were
imported from the New
World.
 Corn yielded 20 times
more seeds than wheat.
 Potatoes thrived in
Northern Europe, where
wheat crops would often
fail.
Effects
Enclosure =
People Move
to Cities
More Food
= More
People
New
Factories
Industrial Revolution!
Beginning of the Industrial
Revolution
Agricultural Revolution
 Enclosure Movement
 Wealthy landlords fenced in common pastures and
experimented with new farming technology.
 Villages lost common lands and political power, peasants
became poorer.
 Crop Rotation
 Fields depleted of nutrients by one crop – replenished by
planting different crops.
 Fields not left fallow (empty)
Agricultural Revolution
 Other Discoveries
 Seed drill planted seeds efficiently
 New crops: corn & potato
 Results of Agricultural Revolution
 More food available
 Population increased
What do you see in this picture?
Where are they working?
What will they do with the yarn and
cloth they are making?
Cottage Industry
 Merchants’ role in Cottage Industry
 Supplied materials – wool & cotton – to cottages to be
carded and spun.
 Took supplies from spinning cottage to weaving cottage to
dying cottage to sell finished cloth.
 Merchants sell product for more than material and labor
costs = profit + larger investments = higher profits.
 Effects of the Cottage Industry
 Big profits for new class of merchants
 Alternative source of income for peasants
What do you see in this picture?
What are the machines doing?
What are the people doing?
What would be an advantage of this?
Textile Industry & Factory System
 Textile Industry Invented
 Cottage Industry couldn’t keep up with the demand for textiles.
 Spinning jenny improved spinning.
 Flying shuttle sped up weaving.
 Rise of Factories
 New machines, too big for homes, put into factories.
 Factories located near power source: coal, iron, water.
Textile Industry & Factory System
 Effects of Textile Factories in Britain

Prices of mass-produced textiles were lower

Britain's textile industry increased enormously

Majority of villagers forced to leave to find work in urban
factories
Energy
 Steam Engine
 Factories could leave rivers
 Improved inventions in all
industries.
Transportation
 Need better
transportation



Stone and asphalt
roads.
Canals
Railroads

Transportation
becomes cheaper &
profits rise.
Spread
 By 1851 United States, Germany, Belgium, and
France also began to industrialize.